Ton A. M. Spil

Post-merger IT integration strategies: An IT alignment perspective

When a company decides to merge with or to acquire another company, a major question is to what extent to integrate the information technologies and the organization. Interpreting merger objectives to proper IT integration strategies is a complex and time-consuming process, due to a lack of explicit understanding of the problems involved. The current literature in this field is meager and has not yet resulted in a theory. For this purpose, we developed a variant of the IT alignment model. In this model, we identify three ambition levels of mergers and IT integration from the literature. Additionally, we describe four integration methods that fit with these ambitions. The relations between these objectives and methods are moderated by contextual factors. Three hospital cases, with different merger and IT integration ambitions, describe the practice of this model. The case studies also add several new variables and relations to it. This result facilitates further research in post-merger IT integration by delivering an empirical research model.

Electronic prescription system: do the professionals use it?

User-adoption of new IT-applications is the proof-of-the-pudding when it comes to IT-success in healthcare. As a consequence, many studies are made of the role of the users in the introduction of new IT in both theory and practice. User satisfaction is widely accepted as a criterion for IS success. However, to understand IS success or failure, it is necessary to recognise its social and technical causes. The USE IT model has four determinants that have to be balanced in assessing the diffusion and use of information systems. Resistance is defined as the degree to which the surroundings and locality negatively influences the users of IT and the degree to which IT-users themselves are opposing or postponing the IT change. Relevance is the degree to which the user expects that the IT-system will solve his problems or help to realise his actually relevant goals. Micro-relevance is the degree to which IT-use helps to solve the here-and-now problem of the user in his working process. Requirements are defined as the degree to which the user needs are satisfied with the product quality of the innovation. Resources are defined as the degree to which material and immaterial goods are available to design, operate and maintain the information system. The USE IT model clearly makes the transition in the onion model of the book from change management (USE) to technological innovation (IT). The empirical results of this qualitative study with 56 cases show that time and communication are the most important factors for General Practitioners for the diffusion and use of an Electronic Prescription System (EPS). The social aspects and technical aspects have to be balanced to get to real use of the information system. The (job) relevance of the EPS to the working process of the professional was, in all 56 cases, the most important determinant. The resistance of the professional that is often used as the main reason for plateaued diffusion was shown to be the cumulative effects of the other determinants. For instance a GP with limited resources (like a slow PC) will get annoyed by the waiting time and will resist the new system using a lot of processing time. At first the technical determinants, requirements and resources, seemed to be a prerequisite for the social determinants. Analysis of this presumption showed that a thorough check on resources is necessary and that a user–provider contract on requirements would help bridge the information gap.

Strategies for healthcare information systems

Information technologies of the past two decades have created significant fundamental changes in the delivery of healthcare services by healthcare provider organizations. Many healthcare organizations have been in search of ways and strategies to keep up with continuously emerging information technologies, particularly Web-based driven technologies. Strategies for Healthcare Information Systems provides an overall coverage of different aspects of healthcare information systems strategies and challenges facing these organizations. The book also provides solutions and remedies in utilizing information technologies in support of a strategic posture of healthcare organization in the new millennium.

The social strategy cone: Towards a framework for evaluating social media strategies

Social media is growing rapidly. Providing both risks and opportunities for organizations as it does. The social strategy cone is developed for evaluating social media strategies. This framework comprises of seven key elements of social media strategies as based on a systematic literature review and case studies. The results of 21 interviews have contributed to the construction of the social media strategy cone for analyzing social media strategies. Three levels of maturity of social media strategy are proposed: initiation, diffusion and maturity. Initiation includes the key elements: ‘target audience’ and ‘channel choice’ while all case organizations studied payed attention to these elements. Diffusion includes the elements: ‘goals’, ‘resources’ and ‘policies’. Maturity adds the elements of ‘monitoring’ and ‘content activities’. Only 3 of the 9 organizations studied are in this phase of maturity. Although, theory suggests the importance of the element of ‘monitoring’ our research shows the need for more attention in practice.

Explaining plateaued diffusion by combining the user-IT-success factors (USIT) and adopter categories: the case of electronic prescription systems for general practitioners

Although the diffusion of new IT in healthcare does not seem to have levelled off, successes are reported frequently. Many of these successful cases show enthusiastic use of an innovation by a limited group of physicians or other users. This paper explains plateaued diffusion by differentiating the match between user and IT to adopter categories (the User-IT-match or USIT model). This match is described by the (sub)-dimensions of affection/resistance, relevance, requirements and resources. Once the sub-dimensions are determined for all adopter groups, it should become clear that different sub-dimensions play a role for every adopter group, and thus in every successive stage of the diffusion process. The diffusion process plateaus if there is no match with the sub-dimensions that play a role in the adopter category which was to adopt the innovation at that stage. A total of 56 case studies on the diffusion of an Electronic Prescription System (EPS) for general practitioners in the Netherlands was used to test the explanatory power of these factors. We conclude that USIT is of high value in determining adopter category specific diffusion problems, and thus in understanding plateauing diffusion. The relevance-factor has the biggest impact within USIT. The paper includes discussion of the limits of the model and suggestions for elaboration. It also discusses diffusion problems that are specific to this EPS.

IT Adoption and Evaluation in Healthcare: Evolutions and Insights in Theory, Methodology, and Practice

This article focuses on the evolution of theory, methodology, and practice regarding the role of adoption, implementation, diffusion, and evaluation factors, and the interaction of these factors at various levels, to healthcare system success. These topics continue to present challenges to organizations, the research community, and to society in general. The first place that new waves of thought are often aired is at conferences. This article explores the evolution taking place in this domain by looking back through the years over work presented at the longest standing conference track focused on adoption, implementation, diffusion, and evaluation factors in e-health and the interaction of these factors at various levels to healthcare system success.

Business intelligence in healthcare organizations

The management of healthcare organizations is starting to recognize the relevance of the definition of care products in relation to management information. In the turmoil between costs, care results and patient satisfaction, the right balance is needed, and it can be found in upcoming information and communication technologies (ICT). The ICT developments are a challenge in two directions: internally towards massive data warehouses, and externally towards Internet dissemination. These new technologies deliver new solutions to old problems. This paper argues that, although the new technology has high potential, a great deal of the solution will be of an organizational nature. In four case studies, we show the spectrum from organizational solutions (changing structure and definitions, forms and procedures) to ICT solutions (changing systems and infrastructures). The main results of this study are, firstly, the notion that model bases, although theoretically existing for more than two decades, are still scarce in healthcare organizations; secondly, a big gap, both in content and in price, was noticed between decision-oriented and model-oriented systems; and, finally, the definition of terminology and the standardization were time-consuming tasks on the road to management information in the four cases studied. It is concluded that business intelligence can be the integration between the organizational and ICT components if one uses a management model and an integrated systems concept. The use of intranets and the Internet as communication channels for management information is seen as the challenge for the near future.

Personal Health Records Success: Why Google Health Failed and What Does that Mean for Microsoft HealthVault?

Five years of experimenting with Personal Health Records has not yielded the results that big companies like Google and Microsoft expected. Whereas Google pulled the plug on its product offering, Microsoft struggles to reach sufficient critical mass. This study adopts a user perspective (51 interviews) in conjunction with grounded theory, to offer explanations why Google Health failed and predictions relative to Microsofts ability to reach a tipping point with respect to product/service viability. Noteworthy, vendors ignore relevance, or perceived usefulness when designing PHRs. Moreover, low trust and high risks do not bode well for long-term success, with the widely used information systems success models often neglecting the latter two critical dimensions.

The Success of Google Search, the Failure of Google Health and the Future of Google Plus

What makes an e-commerce company successful? In 2011 24% of venture capital in the US went into Internet companies adding up to a total of

Change your lifestyle or your game is over: The design of a serious game for diabetes

6.9 billion (PwC & NVCA, 2011). With such high stakes the question of e-commerce success is more topical than ever. Google, one of the biggest e-commerce companies in the world, despite huge successful products like Google Search, has also seen failures. In this paper, we explore factors associated with successful and unsuccessful adoption of Google products using a literature study in conjunction with qualitative analysis of the Google Search, Google Health, and Google Plus products. Our research identifies key success factors for user adoption of Google products and predicts that Google Plus in its present form will lead to failure. The study shows that perceived compatibility, perceived usefulness, information quality, balancing risks with trust, and finally social pressure are important success factors for Google. Despite limiting the examination to Google products, results can serve as a guideline for other e-commerce ventures.